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Title Sequence
A title sequence is that part of a programme which typically gives the series title, theme, and serial or episode name. It may also provide the names of the principal actors involved, as well as that of the writer. Doctor Who Historically, the title sequence has been of great interest to Doctor Who fans, especially when it has been overhauled, as at the beginning of a new actor's tenure as the Doctor, or simply when a producer decided to do so. Changes to the title sequence can be rigorously scrutinised by fans, who may be interested in such minutiae as the font used in the title cards or even relatively minor variations in the theme music. The 1963 - 1967 version of the programme titles did not feature an image of the Doctor, but from 1967 onward the title sequence included a shot of the current Doctor's head floating either through space or the time vortex. However, the presence of the head — or in the case of Season 11, the body — of the Doctor during the Troughton, Pertwee and Tom Baker eras rendered the title sequences more abstract. John Nathan-Turner's radical redesign of the title sequence completely eliminated the time vortex, and replaced it with a representation of space that was never seen in that way within the body of episodes — mainly because the visual effect of space was far more expensive than the production team could afford on a weekly basis. By contrast, the title sequences used during the Hartnell era, and the post Co-Production era, were not abstractions, but showed the time vortex in a way that was used within the body of stories themselves. The season 33 titles introduced the practice of crediting the lead actors over the opening theme -- something that became a trend from that point onward. 1963-1967 The first title sequence consisted of a simple "howlround" effect over the stark original arrangement of the Doctor Who theme. The logo was mixed into the image in such a way that the title momentarily looks like DOCTOR OWO or DOCTOR QHO. The logo then moves into the distance as the sequence cross-fades into the first scene of the episode. The title and writer of the episode is superimposed over this scene, except The War Machines and The Tenth Planet, ''which experimented with specialised title cards for the episodes. The original title sequence was filmed by Bernard Lodge, Hugh Sheppard and Norman Taylor. 1967-1969 A more active howlround effect is employed in the second title sequence. This is the first to truly illustrate the time vortex effect. The Doctor's face is now incorporated into the sequence: a closeup of a smiling Patrick Troughton which breaks apart to reveal a redesigned logo. Like its predecessor, it moves towards the back of the image. For the most part, the howlround effect continued as the episode title, episode number and writer appeared superimposed over the image, though some stories such as ''The War Games ''placed the titles over specialised footage. A modified arrangement of the Doctor Who Theme accompanied this version from episode 2 of ''The Faceless Ones ''onwards, except on episodes 4 and 5 of ''Fury from the Deep where, due to an error, the 1963 arrangement of the theme was used. 1970-1973 A shift to colour production and a change to a new Doctor resulted in a new title sequence being commissioned. Although similar to the 1967-69 version, only now given a red hue, a more tunnel-like howlround is employed. Now, instead of moving away from the camera, the logo is stationary, but it changes colour. The episode title and the name of writer are stationary as well, except for during the title sequences of The Ambassadors of Death and Spearhead from Space, in which the title goes towards the screen. A new image of Jon Pertwee replaced that of Troughton. Some variants were attempted during the 1970 season: The Ambassadors of Death ''experimented with interrupting the title sequence with a scene from the episode, while ''Inferno employed a one-off use of volcano footage as the backdrop to the episode title and writer credit. Otherwise, from here on in, the episode title and writer and episode number would be consistently featured as part of the opening titles. In 1972 a revision was made, incorporating animation of the Doctor moving his hands over his head and a revised version of the theme music. This version was never officially employed, but did accidentally go out on an international print of Carnival of Monsters. One modification to the theme that became permanent was the use of a melodic sting (a repeating musical phrase) that gave the opening sequence a definite conclusion; before it simply cross faded into the first scene of the episode; the "middle eight" section of the theme, occasionally heard during the 1963-69 openings, was no longer included due to the sting.